A friend of mine had his newish Range Rover up for sale . A few evenings ago a couple turned up and looked round the car agreed it was what they had been looking for .It was dark the buyer suggested a test drive but my friend insisted on driving . The woman said she would sit in there car and wait for them to return. On the test drive the potential buyer suggested they stop at a lit petrol station so he could have a better look round under strong lights. After a look round the buyer waited till the perfect moment jumped in the drivers seat and started the car and drove off with my friend running behind .

Moral is the car was keyless entry and start , my friend had the key in his pocket but was near enough to the car during the viewing to allow the buyer to utilise this function . Needless to say the woman had left his drive when he rung his wife at home.
Luckily his insurance broker seems to think he won’t have a problem as he retained the key during the viewing but he will still have a hefty claim against his name .

Theft of keyless entry cars is a huge problem - there's been a spate of thefts in our area where range extenders are used to pick up the "key" signal in the house and open the car (luckily they seem to be after contents, not the car in our area). I hope we'll see more anti-jacking features on next model cars?

Theft of keyless entry cars is a huge problem - there's been a spate of thefts in our area where range extenders are used to pick up the "key" signal in the house and open the car (luckily they seem to be after contents, not the car in our area). I hope we'll see more anti-jacking features on next model cars?

surely the easy way for the car makers to fix this is to make sure that the signal remains 'in zone' at all times when 'in motion', ruddy stupid if the car keeps running after the 'key' is removed, or am I just being too simplistic?

An anti theft option I used to fit was a timer. It shorted out the contact breakers every ten seconds unless turned off. That way the scroats just assumed it was an unreliable old heap and would abandon it up the road. The same thing could be done on moderns, but controlling the injection pump. Although I would guess that anything like that nowadays would upset the ECU and require a dealer's reset charge!

I think keyless is a good idea, but it should require the key physically inserted in the vehicle somewhere to allow it to drive. Which would mean electronic inhibition of the throttle if car has remote start so it can only idle.

What with the transponders still being 30 year old technology....there's also a big need to update this to prevent cloning of keys, and that it must be done via the ECU using an MVP (mobile vehicle programmer) and a valid working key for the car at the same time (which I know is simple to do, if you have all the required bits)

Some nasty ones reported in Solihull, Tamworth and Coleshill this week where thieves have targeted Golf GTI's and Range Rovers. In all cases violence has been used or threatened and in one local case a Lady was dragged from her car in a Supermarket car park while a group of youths drove it off.
A tracker sounds like a great idea since you can just let them have it and hope the police will find where it is.
Best advice in this situation is just let them have it. The last thing we want to hear on this group is someone being injured at the hands of these scroats.

the keyless system is flawed and manufacturers are desperately trying to fix numerous problems the various systems have, all have invested heavily and no one wants to be the first to revert back to a "key" but unless there is a miraculous discovery that cures all they will..... there are so many cheap devices out there that will open, counteract security/vehicle mobilisation,start the car and hide it from any tracking system ... however clever manufacturers are, there are people equally as clever creating means to bypass mass produced systems..... one of the best antitheft items for high end cars a .........crooklock, which rather defeats the keyless idea.....

in the near future new cars will have to automatically open all windows and unlock all door locks when the car is submerged, now that isn't going to cause any problems when the sensor locations are identified!!!

I heard of one manufacturers key (Jaguar maybe?) stops broadcasting if it's not in motion - so if it's sat on your shelf in the house, there's nothing for these range extenders to pick up on. Not sure whether that's actually implemented now, or just something they're working on.

It still doesn't stop them breaking in to you house and demanding the key though

My Nissan 300ZX back in the 1990s just had a simple kill switch hidden in the cabin...It was very effective!
A determined professional thief will always take your car one way or another though!
My wife's boss had an Escort Cosworth kept in an alarmed locked garage with immobilizer and tracker fitted...Still got stolen, never to be seen again!

On that note, my cousin and his family live in Putney and their front door was broken down in the middle of the night while they and their two children were sleeping. There was no messing about. They were woken up , keys to his car ( a flash Audi of some description ) were demanded and they departed taking a laptop and a few minor items as they left. They were unharmed thank goodness and the lowlifes crashed the car two streets away...............

Went to inspect an insurance claim last year where property was damaged when a masked gang forced their way into a house and barricaded the family into the dining room whilst they stole the husband's Audi R8!